Mar 02, 2017
Last month, the Detroit Region Aerotropolis hosted a special visitor, Victor Radebe from Durban, South Africa. He visited for two days of discussion and discovery about two distant, but not so different, aerotropolis efforts.
Mr. Radebe is the Program Manager for an Aerotropolis initiative of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government, to develop an aerotropolis around the King Shaka International Airport in Durban. Recently, he researched various aerotropolis efforts worldwide and worked in partnership with the Aerotropolis Institute of Africa to develop a development strategy that fit the unique needs in Durban. Like our Aerotropolis, he has also been working with Dr. John Kasarda, who wrote the literal book on aerotropoli, Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next.
Over the course of the visit, we set out to exchange as much information as possible about each region’s assets and strategies, as well as the challenges faced in aerotropolis development. Victor chose Detroit as his primary region to explore in the U.S. because of our established aerotropolis region and the unique history, and future, of the automotive industry. In addition to organizational structure, planning, and economic development best practices, our conversations focused mostly on connected and autonomous transportation. Mr. Radebe explained South Africa’s extraordinary potential for positive economic and societal benefits driven by connected and autonomous vehicles, particularly in public transportation, as crucial to their aerotropolis initiative. Like some U.S. regions, South African cities rely heavily on public transportation, and the most common form of commuter transit are taxi-vans, which tend to cause serious traffic congestion issues. Combined with poor road infrastructure in some areas, these taxis are not a sustainable method of commuter transit for the future.
With that in mind, we toured the fantastic Mcity facility at the University of Michigan and discussed the future American Center for Mobility at length. All of this lead to a wonderful experience at the North American International Auto Show. With mobility as the focus of almost every facet of NAIAS, along with excellent speakers and session topics, some of the most crucial information gathered during our two days came at Cobo. With every level of government and economic development focused on mobility, we were proud to showcase our state and region as a leader in the transportation future.
Moving forward, we look forward to developing mutually beneficial partnerships with Durban Aerotropolis, and hope to continually support their goal of becoming the mobility leader in their region, country, and continent, as we strive to do the same right here in metro Detroit.
